


Dark And Bright Meet In Her Aspect

by imaginary_golux



Series: Dread Queen and Consort [1]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Dark Side Rey, Dubcon Cuddling, F/F, Grey Jedi Rey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-27
Updated: 2016-04-03
Packaged: 2018-05-29 10:07:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 11,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6370615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginary_golux/pseuds/imaginary_golux
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rey decides that the best way to keep Finn safe is to get rid of *everyone* who might possibly hurt him...and the best way to do that is to infiltrate the First Order as a Dark Side apprentice.</p><p>...Kylo Ren isn't going to know what hit him. And Phasma is more than a little surprised at the way her life has just changed.</p><p>Beta by my Best Beloved, the plotbunny whisperer extraordinaire, Turn_of_the_Sonic_Screw.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“You need a teacher,” Kylo Ren says, lightsaber locked with hers. “I can show you the way of the Force.”

“The Force,” Rey says softly, and closes her eyes, reaching for she is not sure what. Around her, she can hear the forest screaming as the ground fragments, the entire planet beginning to break apart. Nearby, she can feel Finn, unconscious but alive; and approaching swiftly, the bright spot of protective rage which is Chewbacca. He will reach Finn soon, she thinks, will take Finn away from this terrible place. But so long as Kylo Ren lives, as all of the people who have made this terrible weapon live, Finn will be in danger. And Rey - Rey learned long ago to fight to protect what is hers, using any weapons she can find, any techniques she can turn her hands to. She will protect Finn. She will do _whatever it takes_ to keep him safe.

She opens her eyes and says, staring up into Kylo Ren’s madness, “Then teach me, Master.”

*

They make it to the _Finalizer_ with moments to spare. Rey feels Chewbacca and Finn leave the planet just before she herself reaches the enormous ship, and with a faint sigh of relief lets her awareness of them fade away. They’re safe - now she has the time she needs to do what she must.

She and Kylo Ren are met by two people: a tall man with red hair who feels, in the Force, like a sandstorm, implacable, deadly, and impersonal; and an equally tall woman in bright chrome armor - somewhat smudged, but still shining - who feels like a blaster, focused and dangerous but directed. The man gives Rey a dubious look.

“This is my new apprentice,” Kylo Ren says smugly. “Padawan, these are General Hux and Captain Phasma.”

Rey nods coldly to them. General Hux nods back; Captain Phasma salutes, fist to her chest, the helmet making her expression impossible to read. Rey reaches out: General Hux thinks that she is another of Kylo Ren’s poor decisions; Captain Phasma thinks she is small and will break, but is willing to suspend judgement otherwise. Rey can work with that.

“Supreme Leader Snoke has commanded that we attend upon him,” General Hux says.

“Good,” says Kylo Ren. “I am eager to introduce him to my padawan.”

*

Rey is assigned a room - just down the hall from Kylo Ren’s, in fact - and a meal shift, and the nervous officer showing her the ship (Mitaka, she thinks his name is, though she does not plan to use it - she is going to be just as arrogant as Kylo Ren, and that means that no one below the top ranks should appear to matter to her) has the tailoring shop put together a set of black robes modeled on her normal clothing. She doesn’t thank him, but she does give him a very small smile, and the way he relaxes makes her think that Kylo Ren must be even more of a spectacular asshole than she had previously assumed, which is downright impressive.

That night she has dinner with Kylo Ren, at a table on a dais above the officers’ mess. She eats what’s put in front of her, not asking what it might be - honestly, she can barely taste it, because she is so focused on the minds and emotions of the people around her. Hatred and fear, so thick they seem to coat her tongue, predominate; only Kylo Ren reeks of triumph every time he looks at her.

The fear that the officers feel when they look at her can be useful, she thinks. Let them fear her - let them learn that she is more terrible than Kylo Ren when she wants to be, and yet more sane. It will be a delicate balancing act.

Kylo Ren gives her the perfect opportunity, a moment later. She has to bite down on the inside of her cheek to keep herself from smiling.

“So, padawan,” he says, tone dripping with smugness, “I should give you a gift, to welcome you to the Dark Side. I understand that women like shiny things - shall I bring you a diamond made in the heart of a star?”

Rey considers this, then smiles slow and sweet and terrible. She can feel Mitaka’s sudden shudder of fear from where he sits at the far side of the room. “Shiny things,” she says slowly. “I suppose I enjoy shiny things...as long as they are also deadly weapons.” She taps a finger on her lips, trying to make it look as menacing as possible. “Sure, I’ll take a shiny thing from you - _that_ one.” And points unerringly across the hall to where Captain Phasma sits in her chrome armor, her helmet lying on the table.

Kylo Ren laughs uproariously. “Oh, yes,” he crows, “you would have been _wasted_ on the Light! Captain Phasma,” he calls, and the tall woman stands, collects her helmet, comes to stand expressionlessly at the foot of the dais. “You are reassigned, Captain,” Kylo Ren says, gloatingly. “You are now the bodyguard - and personal servant - of my new padawan.”

“Yes, Lord Ren,” says Phasma, still expressionless, and bows to Rey. Rey can nearly taste her fury and fear and resentment, but there is no trace of it on her face.

“But now you must give _me_ something,” Kylo Ren adds, turning his attention away from Phasma as though she is utterly insignificant. Rey smiles at him, sharp and cruel.

“Oh, but what could such a new student give to her Master,” she inquires sweetly.

“Something to show your devotion, of course,” says Kylo Ren, and she can taste his anticipation on the back of her tongue. He’s going to ask for _her_ , she knows suddenly - for her in his bed, and she will not, _cannot_ give him that. But - yes.

“But of course, Master,” she says easily, and pulls the lightsaber hilt from her belt, laying it on the table between them. “Already I have learned I am unworthy of this. It is proper for you to have it, surely.”

Kylo Ren is completely distracted, just as Rey intended. He picks the ‘saber hilt up almost reverently. “Well,” he says after a moment, trying to regain the verbal dominance in this battle masquerading as a conversation, “you _do_ understand your place, padawan.”

“Of course I do,” Rey says, with utter honesty. “It is right here.”

Kylo Ren radiates satisfaction. Rey smiles, thin and dangerous, and lets him think she meant exactly what he wants. She has fought battles like this before. The man who thinks you are helpless is the one who does not expect the knife.


	2. Chapter 2

Phasma is...not allowed to be annoyed by the fact that she has been so abruptly taken from her command and given, as a gift, to the newest Dark Padawan of the First Order. Stormtroopers do not get to be annoyed by their assignments. But she was _good_ at being the leader of the Stormtroopers, and she is...not scared, because Phasma has long since trained herself out of fear...but apprehensive about the coming sleep shift.

There are rumors about the Knights of Ren. Kylo Ren, their leader, is - so far as anyone knows - completely ascetic; certainly he has never commanded any of Phasma’s ‘troopers to his bed, and Phasma would know. And there are no rumors of his visiting his attentions on the officers, either, though there’s some speculation that his ongoing rivalry with General Hux is fueled in part by some sort of desire. Possibly it is the desire to kill the General. Phasma suspects as much. But the other Knights - well. There are rumors that the ‘troopers who are summoned to their quarters often do not emerge, or are sent immediately to the bacta tanks; that the officers on their ships are sometimes designated ‘killed in battle’ when the ship has not been in combat for weeks; that on newly-captured planets the Knights are brought the most beautiful of the defeated locals, who are never seen again.

The Dark Side of the Force, insofar as Phasma understands it - and she does not pretend to more than a very slight understanding, since the matters of the Force are not for a mere commander of Stormtroopers to know - is fueled by hatred, fear, anger, and blood. There are ways to ensure that sexual intercourse is full of such emotions.

Phasma is not looking forward to the coming night.

*

Phasma follows her new Dark Mistress - the title will do until Phasma is ordered to use another, at any rate, and it is always wise to be as polite and deferential as possible to the Knights of Ren - back to the rooms Rey has been assigned, keeping a careful two paces behind her. Rey is much smaller than Phasma, slender and almost delicate in appearance, but Phasma knows that that means nothing - the Force is a weapon which does not require brute strength to use.

That _might_ mean that tonight will not be _physically_ injurious. Especially since Phasma has been assigned as a bodyguard - what use is a bodyguard too injured to move?

Though Phasma’s new mistress may prefer a bed-toy to a bodyguard, in which case she might not care.

And in any case, it’s not really Phasma’s place to worry about it, is it? What her new mistress will do, Phasma will submit to; it’s just that simple. And Phasma has already advised General Hux that she thinks GL-2230 would be an adequate replacement for her as commander of the Stormtroopers; he is a loyal and obedient and intelligent ‘trooper, one Phasma has been grooming for command for several years. Not as good as FN-2187 would have been, had he not defected, but still very good. So Phasma’s troops will be in good hands.

*

Phasma follows Rey into Rey’s rooms, and closes the door gently behind her, then stands at parade rest, waiting to hear her orders. Rey looks her over closely for long moments. “Take off your helmet,” she says at last. Phasma obeys. Rey examines her face, then nods and concentrates. When she speaks again, her voice seems to reverberate in Phasma’s bones.

“You will never speak, write, or otherwise communicate about what happens in these rooms without my permission,” Rey orders.

Phasma finds her mouth moving without her conscious control. “I will never speak, write, or otherwise communicate about what happens in these rooms without your permission,” she agrees.

Rey seems to deflate a little. “Oh good,” she says, as if to herself, and then, in a perfectly normal tone of command, “Take off that armor and get ready for bed.”

Phasma obeys, puzzling as she does over what has just happened. That was clearly a Force-assisted command, the one she found herself echoing; but why would her Dark Mistress care if anyone else found out about what she plans to do to Phasma? No one in the First Order will so much as bat an eye if Phasma emerges from these rooms battered and bloody, or maimed, or dead. That is the price the First Order’s troops pay for the powers of the Knights of Ren: some few must be sacrificed for the good of all.

But when Phasma is naked - she has no nightclothes here, after all - and has finished her nightly ablutions, and presents herself at the side of the bed for whatever will be required of her, Rey says only, “Get in,” and when Phasma lays down - very confused now - Rey wraps herself around Phasma, tugs the blankets up over both of them, and buries her face in Phasma’s shoulder, and is still.

Phasma blinks up at the ceiling - or, well, at the darkness where she knows the ceiling to be, since the lights flicked off as soon as Rey pulled the sheets up - and waits for pain. None is forthcoming.

Eventually, Phasma falls asleep. She doesn’t mean to - rather expects to be rudely awoken at some point in the night, in fact - but it is late and it has been a _long_ day, what with the Starkiller Base being destroyed and so on, and Phasma is weary beyond words. And Rey is asleep, curled around Phasma and snoring gently against her shoulder. Phasma is not in the habit of sharing her bed, though as an officer she could easily have ordered one of her subordinates to attend her; but Rey is a quiet sleeper, does not thrash or fidget in her sleep, and so Phasma follows her new mistress into slumber, still immensely confused.

She is even more confused in the morning, when her mistress wakes and stretches, then settles down in the middle of the floor and closes her eyes and sits completely still for nearly an hour. Phasma uses the hour to clean up and get dressed as silently as possible, her armor a layer of shielding from the rest of the world that she desperately needs right now, and then stands at parade rest and waits until Rey opens her eyes and stands.

Rey looks Phasma over assessingly - Phasma has her helmet off, since her new mistress seems to prefer that, but is otherwise fully armed and armored - and nods. “Hold still,” she says, and slaps Phasma hard on each cheek; it stings, but Phasma has borne worse in silence, and does not flinch. Rey examines the red marks left by her hand and nods again. “That will do well enough,” she says. “Everyone will assume there are other marks. Let them do so.”

“Yes, my Mistress,” says Phasma, now even more confused.

Rey frowns. “Not Mistress,” she says. “Call me...hm. Lady will do.”

“Yes, my Lady,” says Phasma.

“Good,” says Rey. “Alright. Let’s go.”


	3. Chapter 3

Rey knows that she probably _should_ have done worse to Phasma than a few slaps, to keep her cover intact, but hopefully the injunction against saying anything will keep that from becoming a problem. She kind of likes Phasma, honestly, the clean deadly purpose of her, like a blaster or Rey’s own staff - the other woman is not cruel, as Kylo Ren is, nor utterly without conscience, as General Hux, but only a perfectly honed weapon, and Rey has always appreciated a good weapon.

And she cannot spare too much thought for her bodyguard, in any case. The delicate dance she is doing with Kylo Ren is too thought-consuming.

Apparently the trip to wherever this Supreme Leader is is going to be at least a week long - multiple hyperspace jumps in many directions, to throw off any pursuit - and so Rey is going to be spending every day training with Kylo Ren. She’s honestly kind of looking forward to it. Whatever he can teach her will be more than she already knows - and she already knows that she can defeat him. She could see it, when she opened herself to the Force, could see the errors in his attacks, the openings he was leaving; she could see where and how to strike. But Kylo Ren is only the weapon, and she must find and kill its wielder if she wants to keep Finn truly safe.

And the rest of the galaxy, of course. But mostly Finn.

The first training session is honestly very interesting. Kylo Ren finds her at breakfast and brings her - with Phasma a silent, gleaming shadow - to an enormous room with mirrored walls, hands her a mock lightsaber of some light wood, and invites her to attack him. She does so, carefully making her movements more tentative, less accurate than they could be, and he beats her back and back and back around the room, leaving bruises where she allows him to strike her, and - quite inadvertently, she knows - leaving his mind wide open as he does so, in his eagerness to teach. She does not reach into his mind, since he would notice that, only reads what comes boiling to the surface: rage and fear and resentment and smug assurance and delight at having won her to the Dark. Rey doesn’t think he knows how terrified he is; it has become almost background noise, like the endless winds of Jakku were for her.

Eventually, he leaves her there, with an admonishment to practice certain movements fifty times apiece. Rey obeys, because it’s actually a sensible order, and she’s used to fighting with her staff, not with a lightsaber. For hours she watches herself in the mirror, a black form flowing through the movements of battle without an opponent. She opens her mind to the Force, lets the knowledge stored in it flow through her, and lets it teach her how she _should_ move, the perfect combination of efficiency and grace.

And then she tosses Phasma the second fake lightsaber. “Come and spar with me,” she says. Phasma’s face is hidden behind her chrome helmet, but Rey can feel the startlement and tentative pleasure radiating from the other woman. “I’ll never get any better just fighting _myself_ ,” Rey adds, and Phasma settles into a guard position across from her, nods once, attacks.

Phasma is not trained with a ‘saber, but she _is_ a trained warrior, and she is strong and agile and bold. Rey doesn’t bother holding back against her, either; let Kylo Ren know, if he likes, that Rey can defeat her own bodyguard. Kylo Ren does not think _he_ is anything but the finest fighter around, when he thinks of it. He will never guess that Phasma is nearly as good as he is, that Rey is ever more confident now that when it comes to a true battle, it will be Kylo Ren who falls.

When Rey finally signals a halt, she is dripping with sweat, and Phasma is radiating an odd combination of admiration and fear. Well, that makes sense - Phasma is a warrior, and would appreciate such skills in another person, but also Rey has just proven that if she wants to, she can do _serious_ harm to Phasma. And that’s...something Phasma expects.

Rey can’t do anything about that now, though. Maybe someday, when the people she plans to kill are dust and ashes; but not now.

*

She spends lunch that day talking to Mitaka, who looks satisfyingly terrified when she sits down across from him - Kylo Ren is not on the dais, and so Rey chooses not to eat alone in solitary splendor - and who tells her everything she could dream of wanting to know about the First Order when she asks. It is from Mitaka that she learns that General Hux was the one who ordered the entire Hosnian System destroyed. She thinks about that - about entire _planets_ rendered to dust - and quietly adds General Hux to her list of people to kill. Mitaka can live, she supposes, if he continues to be useful.

After lunch, she retreats to her room to shower - because Force knows she needs it - and then Kylo Ren summons her to his chambers.

He wants to show her the twisted remnants of his grandfather’s helmet. She would almost have preferred him to try to bed her. Some of the traders who came through Niima Outpost practiced ancestor worship, but there’s burning incense to the dead and then there’s...whatever the kriff Kylo Ren is doing.

She listens to Kylo Ren rant about Darth Vader for a while, nodding admiringly when it seems appropriate, and asking questions now and again: _tell me about the Empire_ , she says, and _how did you manage to find such an...astonishing artifact?_ and _do you think you could be his reincarnation?_

The level of pleasure he feels at that last question is nearly orgasmic, and Rey carefully is not ill all over his creepy, creepy shrine.

*

At dinner that night, General Hux expounds at length on the glorious history and equally glorious future of the First Order. Rey listens with an expressionless face, eating whatever is put in front of her without complaint - it’s some sort of stew, and the bile that General Hux is spewing rather ruins her appetite, but she eats anyhow, because one thing she has learned is that you _always_ eat when food is available. You never know when it might run short.

And after dinner, Rey and Phasma return to Rey’s rooms, and Rey locks the door and orders Phasma to get ready for bed, and curls up around the other woman as though Phasma were a particularly large and warm version of the little doll that Rey left on Jakku. There is no one on this whole vast ship - Phasma included - who wishes Rey well, or who would not be pleased on some level to see her brought low, but Phasma is the closest thing Rey has to a friend here, and she will lie quietly and let Rey cling to her without complaint, and that is - that _must_ be - enough.


	4. Chapter 4

Phasma ends her first full day as bodyguard to the Lady Rey even more confused than she was at its beginning. Rey is nothing like Kylo Ren, nor indeed like any of the other Knights of Ren that Phasma has been unlucky enough to encounter. She is quiet and self-contained, poised and graceful, and she _listens_ to everything and rarely speaks. She has inflicted no pain on Phasma save those two slaps - well, and the bruises Phasma has from their sparring, but that is different; training injuries are not even in the same _galaxy_ as the sort of deliberate harm which Phasma was and is expecting as bedplay from a Dark Lady.

Rey is a warrior. Phasma isn’t sure what she was expecting, but Rey is so small - especially compared to Phasma or Kylo Ren - that Phasma had somehow assumed she was also weak. But no; the little meat that there is on Rey’s bones is muscle, and she fights like she’s been doing it all her life. She is, in Phasma’s considered opinion, actually better than Kylo Ren, though Phasma _did_ observe that Rey let Kylo Ren win their bout. _Let_ , that’s the important word: Rey was holding back, letting Kylo Ren win without letting him _know_ she was throwing the bout.

That’s information Kylo Ren probably needs. But Phasma is Rey’s bodyguard now, and so her first loyalty must be to Rey. And also Kylo Ren would not heed her if she warned him; he has never heeded her. She is only a Stormtrooper, after all. Well then, let him find out the hard way. It is the way of the Knights of Ren to challenge each other for prominence, anyhow; Phasma’s Lady might actually be able to become head of the whole knightly order if she fights against them as well as she did against Phasma.

But it is baffling that now two nights have passed and Rey has not ordered Phasma to do anything but act as a sort of...living pillow. Phasma’s not _complaining_ about the lack of pain - she is not a masochist or a fool - but still, it is _odd_. Perhaps it is a form of delicate psychological torture?

Yes, Phasma decides, that must be it. Rey is letting Phasma come up with all the various horrid things that Rey _might_ do, inflicting mental pain upon Phasma, and then when she finally gets around to the _physical_ pain, it will probably be something Phasma has never even thought of, some nameless torture invented on the desert planet where Rey was raised, and Rey will reap the benefits both of the physical pain and of the mental agonies Phasma has endured while waiting. Clever!

And that suggests a level of patience and of planning which might actually keep Rey alive in the sarlacc pit which is the order of the Knights of Ren. Perhaps, then, if Phasma can make herself sufficiently invaluable to Rey in ways _other_ than the pain Phasma can feel, Phasma might be able to link her own star to Rey’s - to rise with her as she gains power and prestige.

And, inevitably, to fall with her; but Phasma doesn’t bother to worry about that. Everyone dies. Phasma will face her death, when it comes, with clear eyes and without fear, and she will not bother worrying about it beforehand.

Well. If Phasma wishes to make herself someone who Rey values, she will have to put more effort into discovering what it is that Rey desires.

*

Phasma lays out Rey’s clothes the next morning while Rey is - meditating? It looks like meditation, anyway - and attempts to make herself useful by helping Rey put her boots on, but Rey pushes her gently away, shaking her head. “I don’t need help dressing,” she says, but her tone is mild and there’s no threat behind it. Phasma nods, says, “Yes, my Lady,” and makes a mental note.

Before they leave the room, Rey tells Phasma to hold still, and then punches her, with great accuracy, right in the mouth. Phasma’s lip splits and bleeds a little. Rey grimaces, but she nods approval, hands Phasma a scrap of cloth to blot her lip with, and leads the way to the mess hall with her head held high. Phasma puzzles over this while she follows her lady: one punch is not enough to do more than mildly inconvenience Phasma, and it certainly doesn’t appear that Rey is inflicting pain on Phasma for the pleasure of doing so - more so that other people will _think_ that Rey has been using Phasma as cruelly as Phasma has been expecting. There are no bruises under Phasma’s shining armor, no pain echoing in her bones, no blood staining her undersuit. Baffling. Astonishing. Perhaps Rey does not want Kylo Ren to know that she is planning so subtle a cruelty against Phasma - is trying to look simpler than she is. Yes, that fits with the deliberately-thrown bout, too: Rey is angling for Kylo Ren’s position, and is pretending to be weaker and less subtle than she is in order to make him drop his guard.

Clever. Phasma approves. The appearance of weakness, where there is none, can be a _very_ good disguise.

*

While Rey is practicing with Kylo Ren, later that morning, Phasma takes the opportunity to slip out and find GL-2230 to see how her ‘troopers - no, not hers anymore - are doing.

GL-2230 is almost painfully glad to see Phasma. “We were...dismayed at losing you, ma’am,” he says, the strongest statement he can safely make without sounding disloyal.

“I obeyed orders,” Phasma says flatly.

“Yes, of course,” GL-2230 replies hastily. “It is...it is only that we had not then realized that the proper allocation of our Captain was as bodyguard to the new Lady.”

Phasma suppresses a snort of bleak amusement. She is a combat-blooded warrior and a skilled commander; her proper allocation is _not_ as a bodyguard and bed-servant, or should not be. But as Kylo Ren commands, so must they all obey.

“Lady Rey is a very...tolerable mistress,” she says instead. GL-2230 looks startled. “She is very skilled in combat,” Phasma adds.

Phasma does not give praise easily. She can see GL-2230 is startled at her description of Rey, and then calculating. “I see,” he says at last. “That’s good to know.”

“Yes,” says Phasma blandly, and turns the conversation to the ‘troopers she was intending to promote for their efforts on Starkiller, before her command was taken from her. GL-2230 takes notes, and also suggests a handful of others she had not considered. Phasma approves. GL-2230 has a good eye.

He’ll take care of her ‘troopers, even if she can’t.

*

Phasma spars with Rey, orders more clothing for her lady while Rey is in the shower, tidies Rey’s rooms while Rey meditates that afternoon, and follows Rey obediently to dinner. And after dinner she doesn’t bother to wait for the command, but gets ready for bed and takes up a position as living pillow. Rey seems faintly amused, and even more faintly pleased by this show of initiative. Phasma is also pleased: she is learning to anticipate her mistress.


	5. Chapter 5

Rey doesn’t like having to hurt Phasma, but she knows enough from what she’s been skimming off the minds of the other people in the ship - and from Phasma’s mind, too - that if Phasma turns up looking completely unmarked, _someone_ is going to start getting dubious about Rey’s Dark Side affiliations. A split lip, though, or a bruised cheek - on the face of the woman given to Rey as a bodyguard and slave - that’s camouflage.

But Rey doesn’t want to _keep_ hitting Phasma in the face. If nothing else, it will become predictable.

So she is both astonished and more than a little pleased when Phasma says, as they are getting their clothes on in the morning, “I will pretend to favor my left side today, my Lady, if that pleases you.”

“Do that,” Rey says, nodding. And then, because she can take nothing at face value aboard this terrible ship, “Why are you helping me?”

“My Lady,” says Phasma, clearly picking her words carefully, “I am your servant and your bodyguard. What you desire, I desire. You wish me to appear injured so that no other realizes that you have some subtle plan for me - that you are cleverer and stronger than you appear. I do not know your true intentions, but I understand enough, and I obey.”

Rey considers Phasma for a long minute. “Huh,” she says at last. “Well. Alright, then. If you betray me, I’ll kill you, just to be clear.”

“Yes, my Lady,” Phasma says calmly. She is not even scared, Rey realizes, just...accepting. Well, that’s fucked up. But useful. And - hm.

Rey steps forward and puts a hand on Phasma’s face, thumb resting against the split in Phasma’s lip. “This,” she says quietly, “you have permission to tell those who you judge wise to do so. I am a new kind of Dark Lady. What is mine, I protect. What pleases me, I do not harm.” She focuses for a moment on the tiny injury beneath her thumb, and under her attention it heals smooth and clean as though it has never been. “You please me,” she tells Phasma, “and you are mine. Do you understand?”

She can read the awe and wonder leaking from Phasma as easily as a ten-foot warning sign, though Phasma’s calm expression never wavers. “Yes, my Lady,” Phasma says softly. “Yes, I understand.” And then, taking a deep breath, “I am yours, my Lady - all there is of me.”

“Yes,” says Rey simply, knowing as she does that her burden - the number of people she _must_ keep safe - has just increased by one. “You are.”

*

Phasma does not limp, that day, nor does she bear new marks on her face, and Rey meets the surprised stares with a tiny, smug smile that makes the observers worry quite a lot. Rey is pleased. People who are not entirely sure how she will behave are people who will hesitate before challenging her. And Phasma, behind her, is radiating satisfaction so strongly that Rey is a little surprised that no one else seems able to feel it.

But even Kylo Ren doesn’t seem to notice that Phasma’s opinion of her mistress has gone from faintly terrified but obedient loyalty to a deep and satisfied devotion. Perhaps Kylo Ren does not pay much attention to the people around him, Rey decides, at least the ones who he considers to be beneath him. That would be...very like Kylo Ren.

Kylo Ren is a fool, but then, Rey knew that. And her conviction of this fact only grows stronger over the next four days, as he spars with her (always winning) and lectures her on the Dark Side (and her connection to the Force cries _wrong, wrong, all wrong_ ) and obsesses over his grandfather’s ashes (there is nothing there, no connection - they are as dead as stone).

Kylo Ren is a fool, and Rey is going to enjoy killing him.

*

She makes two lists, during the remainder of her week on the _Finalizer_ , while she listens to everyone’s words and minds alike, puts together the pieces of what she knows and what she suspects and what people admit - boast of - when they think she can or cannot hear.

The first list is the list of people she is going to kill. It is not terribly long, because she is not, at her heart, a bloodthirsty person, but it begins with Kylo Ren and General Hux and continues for a fair little ways. She is careful to give these people no indication that she has anything but admiration and respect for them.

The second list is of the ones like Phasma. The ones who are part of the First Order because that’s how they’ve been raised and trained and brainwashed, because they cannot see that there is any other option - because unlike Finn, they were never scared enough, brave enough, strong enough and lucky enough to run. The ones who are loyal to their comrades but who serve the First Order because it is what one does, not because it is who they are.

The ones who would serve _her_ , if she gave them a better option.

Mitaka is on that list - he’s still terrified of her, but Phasma said _something_ to him during dinner one evening while Rey was making admiring noises at Kylo Ren’s interminable description of the glories of the lost Empire, and now Mitaka’s mind when he speaks to Rey is an odd mix of fear and hope and fear _of_ hope, like he’s desperately hoping that she really is what she says she is, and yet afraid to be wrong. Rey can work with that. He gets less terrified every time she talks to him and doesn’t Force-choke him or destroy anything; eventually, with luck, he’ll lose the fear entirely. Or at least all the fear that isn’t useful to her.

GL-2230, Phasma’s replacement as the head of the Stormtroopers, is also on that list. He’s wary of Rey, in large part because he is utterly devoted to Phasma - _most_ of the Stormtroopers are utterly devoted to Phasma - but when Phasma walks in to introduce him to Rey with an unmarked face and no trace of injury in her stance, GL-2230 decides to give Rey the benefit of the doubt. He’s Phasma’s now, but someday perhaps he will be Rey’s.

JB-007 is terrified of Rey, but also awed; he is the Stormtrooper whom she induced to free her on the Starkiller Base. He might be useful someday. So too might the second-in-command of the TIE fighter pilots (the commander enjoys firing on unarmed civilians: she is on Rey’s kill list) and the department heads in Research and Development, though the head of R&D, who oversaw the creation of Starkiller with vim and vigor, is going to follow General Hux to his fate.

And then there is the small matter of the other Knights of Ren. Rey asks Phasma about them, in the quiet dark hours while Rey lies curled against Phasma’s warmth, and is deeply pleased by the blunt honesty with which Phasma answers her questions: some of the Knights are known to be fair commanders, just in their dealings, rarely cruel. Others...are not.

Rey files this information away carefully. She will, if she must, kill all of them - if Kylo Ren is the best of them, she does not fear them in the slightest - but it would be pleasant to be able to turn at least one of them from the Dark, if she can.

But first, there is the little matter of Supreme Leader Snoke and Kylo Ren; and it is too soon and yet not soon enough when the _Finalizer_ arrives at its destination and Rey is ‘invited’ - politely, for Kylo Ren - to come and meet the lord of the First Order.

She tells him, with perfect honesty, “I am eager to do so,” and follows him off the ship with measured steps.


	6. Chapter 6

Phasma follows her lady down the corridors of the Base - it has no other name - with a feeling of...not fear, perhaps, but apprehension growing in her chest. Rey is already the best commander, the cleverest and kindest superior Phasma has ever had; but that means very little to anyone else. If Rey is judged wanting by the Supreme Leader, she will be slain - or worse than slain - and Phasma, as her servant, may well follow her into death or ignominy. Or she may simply be reassigned to her Stormtroopers as though the past week had never happened. She has seen similar things happen before, to those unlucky officers or ‘troopers who are given, as she was given, to those that some higher-up wants to impress, and who subsequently become...less impressive. It’s not pretty.

But there is absolutely nothing that Phasma can do, so she follows her lady through the corridors to the great doors which lead to the Supreme Leader’s audience chamber - Phasma has never had the honor of being allowed in, but she has caught glimpses now and then of an immense room, echoing and empty - and falls into parade rest, to wait to learn her lady’s fate. Across the corridor, General Hux also stops to wait: this first audience is for the Force-users only, something Phasma knows grates on General Hux deeply. Somewhat understandably, Hux does not enjoy taking second place to a man whose idea of ‘temper control’ is destroying entire control rooms, and whose manners leave a great deal to be desired.

Rey walks into the audience chamber at Kylo Ren’s side, head high, her ever-present staff hanging across her back. The doors close behind them, and try as Phasma might, she can hear nothing from the other side.

There is a long, echoing silence. Phasma begins counting seconds in her head, an old habit from when she was a child and could not stand still without fidgeting. Seconds turn into minutes, minutes tick by as steadily as a metronome. General Hux is reading something on his datapad, and frowning at it, and fidgeting every few minutes.

And then the doors swing open, slow and silent and ponderous, and Rey is standing alone in the doorway, with an object in each of her hands. She drops the objects, and they roll thumpingly across the floor, coming to rest midway between Rey and Phasma and Hux. Two objects. Two heads: one with a wild shock of black hair, the other hairless and wrinkled, an expression of shock frozen on each dead face.

Phasma understands first, is glad for the helmet which shields her expression of utter astonishment as she drops to one knee, claps a hand to her chest in salute. General Hux takes a minute longer - gapes at the heads in horror and dismay - but he, too, drops to one knee and salutes, staring at Rey with wide eyes. “Supreme Leader,” he says, voice faint and entirely lacking in his usual commanding tones.

“That is,” Rey says coolly, “a silly title. You may call me ‘Queen.’”

“My Queen,” Phasma breathes, awed beyond telling. “Command me.”

“Escort me to the _Finalizer_ ,” Rey says. “I have work to do.”

*

Phasma stands behind Rey as Rey takes control of the _Finalizer_ and sends out the messages which will give her control of the entire First Order. General Hux is still apparently having trouble coming to grips with this abrupt change in the power structure, and obeys orders, when he gets them, with a sort of stiff discomfort. Phasma catches Rey watching Hux leave the room at one point, sees the look in Rey’s eyes, and understands suddenly that General Hux’s lifespan can now be counted in days, if not hours. Well, that is a queen’s prerogative, to rid herself of those servants who do not please her. Phasma will shed no tears for General Brendol Hux.

It is a very long day, full of video conferences with incredulous governors and officers, all astonished that this tiny, unknown woman could have slain the leader of the Knights of Ren and the Supreme Leader himself. But the other Knights of Ren apparently felt the deaths through the Force - a useful trick, Phasma thinks - and confirm Rey’s victory in tones of awe or hatred or astonishment. And a Force-user strong enough to defeat Snoke and Kylo Ren simultaneously is a Force-user no one wants to anger, so one by one the furious, frightened men and women on the other side of the vid screen agree to serve Queen Rey. Phasma knows at least some of them are lying, are already planning to overthrow Rey - but Rey surely knows that too, and has a plan. Phasma isn’t worried.

*

When the long day is over, Phasma follows Rey to Rey’s new rooms - the best rooms on the _Finalizer_ , of course, because nothing else is suitable for the new Queen of the First Order. Phasma rather wonders whether the Queen will want a different bodyguard - certainly she should have a _larger_ bodyguard - but Rey seems perfectly content to have Phasma behind her shoulder. Phasma is not truly suited to be a bodyservant, does not have the training for it, though she is willing to try if that is what Rey wants of her; thankfully, Rey does not appear to want Phasma do to anything other than what Phasma has already been doing: preparing for bed and then acting as a living pillow for her tiny mistress.

But tonight Rey stops Phasma before she can get into the bed, one slim strong hand on Phasma’s face in an echo of the moment she healed Phasma and promised not to hurt her so long as Phasma pleased her. “When we are in public, it is proper for you to call me your Queen or your Lady,” Rey says quietly. “But when we are in private, if you desire it - this is _not_ an order - you may call me Rey.”

Phasma is blankly astonished. To call Rey by her bare name, to address her as an equal, is an honor Phasma did not expect.

“My Queen,” she says after a moment, “I do not understand - I have not given you cause to so reward me.”

Rey smiles a little, a small sad thing. “No, I suppose not,” she says. “But I am going to remake this Order, Phasma, into something better - and I must have those behind me who will serve me with their whole hearts. I know that you do, and will, and it is that loyalty I wish to reward. I need you at my back, Phasma, because with you behind me I shall have the Stormtroopers, and with the Stormtroopers I have the Order in the palm of my hand. You are a weapon more powerful than any lightsaber, and I wish you to know your value.”

Phasma blinks down at her lady. It is not common for Stormtroopers to be valued by their superiors - ‘troopers are interchangeable and replaceable, and even Phasma herself is not considered anything particularly special by the commanders - or by the commanders-that-were. _Snoke_ may not have cared much about the Stormtroopers, or about Phasma; but _Rey_ is an entirely different matter.

“I am yours entirely, now and always, Rey,” Phasma says, and is deeply pleased when her words earn her a slow, sweet, contented smile.


	7. Chapter 7

Rey is astonished, every day, that this is _working_. She is actually managing to consolidate her hold over an entire _empire_ of nasty planet-destroying assholes on the strength of having been terrifying and talented enough to kill Kylo Ren and Snoke at the same time. (It wasn’t a _fun_ time, that half an hour she spent in Snoke’s audience chamber, but neither of them actually expected her to attack them, and somehow they both assumed that just because they had lightsabers and she only had a long, heavy stick that they were better armed than she was. For the record, a long heavy stick is quite a _good_ weapon if you know how to use it and your opponents haven’t even turned their lightsabers _on_.)

But every morning she wakes up curled around Phasma - the other woman puts out heat like a sand dune in the sun, which is very nice in the rather-too-cool confines of the _Finalizer_ \- and spars with her before breakfast, and then spends the next ten hours or so trying to get the entire First Order put in order. She is beginning to build a cadre of clever, devoted subordinates - and she _knows_ they are devoted, reads it in their minds before she ever lets them near her: Mitaka, now her left hand as Phasma is her right, who organizes her correspondence and her household and keeps everything running smoothly; GL-2230, who leads the Stormtroopers as competently as Phasma did; JB-007, now the second-in-command of her bodyguard; Swift, who leads her pilots now, and oddly matched Rauth and Meerka, the new heads of R &D. Those who oppose her, or with whom she is displeased, she has disposed of, either by her own hand or with a quiet word to Phasma, who is quicker with a blaster than anyone Rey has ever seen.

Only General Hux still lives, of her list of those to kill, and she has _plans_ for him.

Rey’s first task, as she sees it, is to deal with the people most likely to either challenge her or try to strike out on their own, and so she directs General Hux to take the _Finalizer_ to each of the other Star Destroyers, with their attendant Knights of Ren. There are, she learns from Mitaka, fifteen Knights of Ren (besides the deceased Kylo, of course), and therefore there are fifteen other Star Destroyers active. Snoke was very clear on not letting anyone have such a magnificent ship unless they also had a Knight of Ren to ride herd on them. Rey is faintly amused by this. It certainly makes _her_ life easier.

She sends no messages ahead of her arrival, save one when she is bare minutes away from whichever ship she is visiting: that the Knight of Ren shall attend upon her, and be prepared to submit or die.

Three of them attack her as she leaves the shuttle; those she slays without compunction.

One flees, desperately, and is shot out of space by Swift’s quick reflexes.

Six come to attend upon her, and when she reads their surface thoughts, and the thoughts of those around them, she finds them to be as foul as the never-cleaned cesspits of Niima Outpost, and cuts them down where they stand.

(She has made herself a new weapon, in the hours that she can snatch from her other duties: her staff, modified to hold the blades of both Kylo Ren’s and Snoke’s lightsabers, their crystals tuned to a deep and beautiful purple. The staff still fits her hand as well as it ever did, but now when she hits something, it’s as likely to be sliced in two as to be simply knocked over. This pleases her, and impresses Phasma.)

Of the last five, one of them commits suicide before she can arrive - Rey is honestly not sure what to make of that - and the other four come obediently to meet her.

Rey’s first four visits to Star Destroyers go much as she expects them to: she shows up, she kills the Knight of Ren and extracts an oath of fealty from the General in charge, she goes away again. But on the fifth Star Destroyer, she is met at the shuttle bay door by a young officer with his hat in his hands, who fidgets nervously as she approaches and then goes to his knees when she is near enough, desperation coloring his mind. Rey stops and looks at him curiously.

“Dread Queen,” he says, voice high and shrill with fear, “I - I beg a boon.”

Rey blinks at him, suppressing a smile at the title: she has not _asked_ anyone to call her Dread Queen, but people are doing so anyhow, and she doesn’t mind enough to make them stop. “Ask,” she says, “though I make no promises.”

“Please, Dread Queen,” the young officer says, “please, we know you’ve come to kill our Knight, but - but please don’t.”

“Oh?” says Rey, very curious now.

“He’s...he’s not like the other ones,” the young officer says, and she can taste the truth in his words. “He’s not - he’d serve you well, Dread Queen. And we don’t want to lose him.”

“Hmmmm,” says Rey. “Come with me.”

The Knight of Ren - Kitan, this one is named, because apparently having names starting with a K was a _thing_ (Rey doesn’t want to know what she would have ended up named) - startles badly when he sees the young officer behind Rey. Rey gives Kitan a cold look. “This one,” she says, gesturing to the young officer, “has begged me for your life.”

“Oh _Force_ , Elias,” Kitan says, almost desperately. “You idiot! Please, Dread Queen, he’s young and foolish - my life is forfeit, I know that, but he can be taught, please don’t kill him too.”

Rey smothers a smile. The affection these two have for each other - the affection everyone on this _ship_ seems to have for Kitan - is honestly a refreshing feeling after so many days dealing with the seething hatred of the other Knights of Ren. “I only kill those who will not submit to me,” she says mildly, and Kitan thumps to his knees in front of her, swearing fealty almost before she finishes the sentence.

Rey leaves him alive, him and Elias and everyone else on that Star Destroyer, and as she goes she can feel the entire ship’s crew heave an enormous breath of relief - and feel their loyalty settle into place, firmly and securely hers.

By the time she is done with her ship visits, she has four Knights of Ren under her command - Knights of Rey, now, which amuses her - and the loyalty of fifteen Star Destroyers, give or take a few officers who don’t like her much.

And with fifteen Star Destroyers and the collective might of the Stormtroopers, she thinks it might be fair for her to say that she has the entire First Order thoroughly under her control.

The night she knows that she has won - really won, not just won the first battle against Kylo Ren and his master Snoke - she curls up against Phasma’s chest and weeps like a child, and Phasma holds her, radiating baffled worry, until she is done. And then she wipes her cheeks and kisses Phasma gently, tasting the salt on her lips from her tears, and says, “Tomorrow, Phasma, I will be sending you to treat with the Resistance in my name.”

“As you command,” Phasma says calmly.

And that will be the real end to it, Rey thinks: Finn will be safe when the war is over, and she is going to end the war. _Everyone_ she cares about will be safe when the war is over: Phasma and Mitaka and GL-2230 (she cannot get him to choose a name) and the ‘troopers who act as her bodyguard. She will keep them all safe, till her dying day.


	8. Chapter 8

Phasma is not entirely sure that she is the right person to go as an envoy to the Resistance, but Rey has ordered it and so Phasma will go. Rey gives her instructions as Phasma straps on her armor in the morning.

“I am sending you with two gifts,” Rey tells her, “one for General Organa and the Resistance as a whole, and one for Finn.”

“Do you want me to bring...Finn back with me, to be your Consort?” Phasma asks. It’s not hard to see how much Rey cares for the ex-Stormtrooper; it shines out of her when she speaks of him, which she does only rarely, and only around those few of the First Order that she trusts.

Rey laughs a little. “No, Phasma,” she says, and puts her hand on Phasma’s cheek. “I already _have_ a Consort,” Rey adds softly. “I adore Finn, but he is happier where he is, I’m sure. And he’s not the person I want in my bed.”

Phasma feels herself going pink. “I...am honored, Rey,” she says, just as quietly. She could - perhaps she _should_ \- try to convince Rey that there are many people better suited to be the Queen’s Consort, that Phasma is too plain and blunt and common for such an exalted position, but if she has learned anything by now, Phasma has learned that Rey knows her own mind. And Phasma can’t say she really _objects_ to the prospect of spending her nights for the foreseeable future in Rey’s bed, devoting her life to Rey’s happiness and safety. Wasn’t that what she was doing already, after all?

*

Phasma arrives at the Resistance base in a ship which is broadcasting _truce, truce, flag of truce_ on all bands. The Resistance gives her landing instructions some distance from their main base, which is only sensible, and Phasma comes out of the ship by herself, helmet off in a show of trust, and waits while the Resistance delegation assembles in front of her: General Leia Organa, instantly recognizable from half a hundred holos; FN - _Finn_ , looking healthy and confident, with the pilot Poe Dameron beside him; half a dozen guards and officers with sidearms holstered but obvious and dubious expressions.

“I am sent by the Dread Queen Rey, ruler of the First Order,” Phasma says, and sees every one of them draw in a sudden, harsh breath of shock and dismay. “She sends me with these words:

‘To General Leia Organa and the Resistance, greetings. I offer you a treaty and alliance, and an instant cessation of war; and in token of this new friendship between us, I send you a gift.’” Phasma lifts a hand, and two Stormtrooper drag General Hux, manacled and gagged, out of the ship and dump him in front of General Organa. “‘This man was responsible for the destruction of the Hosnian System; it was his order which fired the Starkiller Base weapon. He is yours to do with as you will.’”

Phasma pauses for a moment, while General Organa and her aides mutter in astonished tones, and then looks straight at Finn. “‘To my dear friend Finn, I send a second gift,’” she says, and Finn steps forward, meeting her eyes fearlessly. Phasma pulls the gift from her belt and puts it gently into Finn’s outstretched hand: a lightsaber hilt, ancient and well-used. “‘This lightsaber no longer suits me, but I think it will serve you well, my friend; use it in good health.’” Phasma takes a deep breath. “Here ends the message. Shall I bear a return message to my Queen?”

“Come and have a meal while we think of what to say other than that we accept her offer of alliance and treaty with great relief,” General Organa says with a wry grin. “You have rather put the rancor among the goats, Captain Phasma.”

“I am not a captain any longer,” Phasma says mildly. “I serve my Queen as her bodyguard and Consort.”

Finn makes a faint choking noise. General Organa’s eyebrows rise. “Well,” she says, “I see she _has_ managed to land on her feet. Do come with me, please, _Consort_ Phasma; we will do our best to be hospitable, and I hope you will be so kind as to tell us anything which is not classified about your new Queen.”

“What I can tell you, I will,” Phasma says, and follows the Resistance delegation into their base. It is rather smaller and dingier than a comparable First Order base, which actually makes it all the more impressive that the Resistance managed to be such a thorn in the First Order’s side while operating with such a tiny budget.

She is given a meal - quite a good one, actually - and joined at the table by General Organa and Finn. General Organa seems content to eat quietly and watch Phasma through narrowed eyes, but Finn asks half a dozen questions before Phasma can even take a bite: “Is Rey safe? Is she really Queen? How did that happen? How did you end up as her bodyguard? What happened to Kylo Ren? What about the Supreme Leader?”

Phasma raises a hand, and is gratified when Finn falls silent. “My Queen defeated Kylo Ren and former Supreme Leader Snoke in combat and slew them,” she says, and Finn blinks at her in shock. Phasma represses a smile. “By right of conquest, she is Queen of the First Order, and the Stormtroopers and the Star Destroyers stand behind her.”

“She has a good chance of holding the throne, then,” Finn says thoughtfully. “That’s most of the firepower the First Order has.” He shakes his head. “I didn’t think she _wanted_ to be a Queen.”

Phasma shrugs. “She _is_ a Queen, by her own choices,” she says. “And I shall do my utmost to see that she retains that position as long as she pleases.”

“Thank you,” Finn says, surprising Phasma immensely. “And when you see her again - tell her I’m doing well, but I miss her, and I hope she’s well and happy, and if we can ever meet again without it being a diplomatic nightmare, I’d like that.”

“I will tell her,” Phasma says. “I think that she will be very glad to hear it.”

*

Rey _is_ very glad to hear the messages Phasma brings her, both the official one from General Organa which cements the tentative peace between the First Order and the Resistance (and, one hopes, the Republic as well), and the personal message from Finn, which makes Rey smile and cry at the same time. Phasma isn’t quite sure what to do about the crying, other than offer a handkerchief, which she does, but Rey doesn’t seem to care that Phasma is out of her depth. She takes the handkerchief and wipes her eyes and smiles up at Phasma.

“He’s safe,” she says, “and _you’re_ safe, and the war is over. I’ve won.”

“There will be other wars,” says Phasma, because she is utterly certain that even as she speaks _someone_ is plotting to overthrow Rey and take the throne of the First Order.

“Oh, I know,” Rey says. “I’ll win them too. But this was the one that really mattered.” Her smile grows teeth. “It kept Finn safe - and it got me _you_.”

Phasma is honestly not sure how to respond to that.


	9. Chapter 9

It is some months after Rey takes over the First Order, cements peace with the Resistance, and tells Phasma that she considers Phasma her Consort that they actually go to bed together for anything more than utterly chaste cuddling. Phasma is a _good_ cuddler, warm and solid and apparently perfectly content to have Rey curled up around her - Rey has checked, has skimmed over the surface of Phasma’s thoughts and found only a mild pleasure in the contact, a sort of satisfaction in knowing that Phasma is pleasing Rey.

It takes them a few months because Rey _can_ read Phasma’s mind, and knows that though she would do anything Rey asked of her without complaint, she’s not actually _attracted_ to Rey in the beginning. She’s busy being apprehensive and repressed and glacially calm. (Rey has actually seen a glacier, now, on one of the First Order’s planets, and found it both very impressive and quite a lot like her Consort, which amused her. The comparison amused Phasma, too, even if Phasma pretended it didn’t.) But after some months go by, as Rey’s control over the First Order grows ever stronger and her comfort in her new position grows greater, Phasma relaxes into her role as bodyguard and Consort both, and begins to look at Rey with admiration and even - eventually - desire.

The first day Rey is changing and feels Phasma’s mind spark with delight and astonishment behind her, she nearly laughs aloud. She doesn’t do anything that time, though, nor for some weeks afterwards, because Phasma is as confused by her own feelings as she is aroused, and Rey is willing to wait until Phasma has found her feet, as it were, in this new part of their relationship. If Phasma had _never_ become interested in Rey, Rey would happily have waited forever; but now that Phasma _has_ decided that Rey is someone she wants in her bed in the euphemistic sense, Rey has _plans_. They involve making sure that her Consort never even _looks_ at another person, because Rey is going to blow Phasma’s mind.

It’s very simple, actually: being able to read minds means that Rey can tell, instantly, what someone wants or how something feels. Which means that she _ought_ to be able to make Phasma feel better than she’s ever felt before.

So on the day that Phasma finally says, as they are getting ready for bed, “Rey - may I kiss you?” Rey is ready.

“Yes,” she says, and lets Phasma kiss her slow and sweet and deep, nestles into Phasma’s arms and lets Phasma be a wall between Rey and the world, because Phasma _is_ a bodyguard, and she likes to know that Rey is safe. And Rey has to admit there is something deeply reassuring about having Phasma be _there_ , arms around Rey and lips against Rey’s and warm skin against Rey’s skin, surrounding her in the protective curve of her arms.

“What do you want of me?” Phasma asks, long minutes later. Rey chuckles against Phasma’s throat, kisses the pulse beneath her lips.

“I want you in my _bed_ , Consort mine,” she says. “I want to know your body as I know your mind and heart.”

“Yes, my Queen,” says Phasma with a crooked grin, and tugs Rey down onto the bed with her, sprawling out on top of Rey until Rey shoves at her shoulder to roll her away.

“You really aren’t scared of me anymore,” Rey says cheerfully, propping herself up on one elbow to look down at Phasma.

“No,” says Phasma easily. “So long as I please you, you will not harm me - you promised that, and Queen Rey does not break her promises.”

“So I don’t,” Rey says, smiling. “And you please me _greatly_ , Consort Phasma. So I do hope you will take it in exactly the spirit I mean it when I say I want to know how to make you _scream_.”

Phasma shivers a little, but there’s no fear in it - Rey skims her mind just to make sure. “I have never been prone to volume,” is all Phasma says, but there’s the crooked little tilt to her smile and the gleam of amusement in her mind that says that she is teasing Rey.

So Rey kisses her, sweet and deep, until Phasma’s breath is coming short in her chest, and then she applies herself to learning exactly where every sensitive spot on Phasma’s body is. Perhaps the gentle touch she keeps on Phasma’s mind, so that she knows _precisely_ when she has done something Phasma likes, is cheating, but Rey doesn’t care. If it’s cheating to know that when she bites down very gently on Phasma’s nipple, it feels to Phasma like a tiny shivering orgasm, that when she strokes just so along the curve of Phasma’s hips, it’s deeply and wonderfully arousing, that little circular motions with just a little more pressure than Rey would have thought comfortable atop Phasma’s clit are _exactly_ what Phasma wants and needs - well, then Rey will cheat with a glad heart.

“Your Consort,” says Phasma, a little shakily, after quite a while, “is very well satisfied. My Queen, may I touch _you_?”

“You may,” says Rey, who is rather on edge already just from feeling the echoes of Phasma’s pleasure - it’s not _quite_ the same as having her own multiple orgasms, but it’s similar enough that she’s almost trembling when Phasma leans over her, pins her very gently to the bed, and kisses her slowly and thoroughly.

She is still trembling when Phasma strokes down over her chest with one broad hand, stopping briefly to cup one of Rey’s breasts gently, to explore the curvature of Rey’s stomach - Rey has gained some curves as Queen, since Queens get more to eat than scavengers - the slickness between Rey’s thighs. And then Phasma moves, swift and graceful as she is on the battlefield, to kneel between Rey’s spread legs and bend to put her mouth where Rey is wet and aching with desire.

Rey can feel how very much Phasma wants to please her, and it is that as much as the clever workings of Phasma’s tongue on her most tender places that sends her keening into her own orgasm, the bright lights behind her eyes like the flash of lightsabers in combat, like the flickering stars.

“Hnnnng,” she says inelegantly when Phasma raises her head. “I’d call you Silvertongue if it wouldn’t confuse everyone else.”

Phasma chuckles, her amusement warm and sort of furry against Rey’s mind. “Shall we keep that as our secret, then, my Queen?”

“Yes,” says Rey, tugging Phasma up to kiss her and then pushing her gently down so Rey can curl around her in her preferred sleeping position. Phasma loops an arm around Rey and pulls the sheets up over them, chuckling softly, the sound reverberating through Rey’s mind and bones. “Our secret.”

“That, and the fact that the Dread Queen likes to cuddle,” Phasma observes, and Rey giggles against her shoulder.

“No one would ever believe you,” she points out.

“No,” says Phasma contentedly. Rey basks in the sheer _joy_ radiating from her Consort’s mind. “It is our secret.” She shifts Rey a little, getting comfortable, and adds, “Go to sleep, Dread Queen. You have people to intimidate in the morning.”

“Yes, Queen’s Consort,” Rey says, and falls asleep content in the knowledge that her people - the people she will burn the universe to protect, her Finn and Phasma and Mitaka and GL-2230 and half a dozen others - are happy, and healthy, and safe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's all, folks! Thanks for reading!
> 
> I have no current plans for a sequel, but I've said that before and been wrong, so...we'll see how the plotbunnies breed.

**Author's Note:**

> Updating daily; nine chapters.


End file.
